Rain Forest Ecology
The rainforest is an ecosystem where animals interact with their environment. Plants produce their own food, animals eat those plants, animals eat those other animals, then when they die, micro-organisms feed on those animals, breaking them down to the soil. That makes what you may call a "circle of life".
Symbiotic relationships in the rainforest are:
Mutualism (good for both)
Capuchin monkeys drink nectar from flowers in trees as part of their diet. In this action they get pollen on their faces and pollinate the flowers.
Commensalism (good for one, doesn't bother other)
Flower mites which feed on pollen hitchhike from one flower to another by hopping into the nasal passages of hummingbirds and getting off when they get to a better flower.
Parasitism (good for one, bad for other)
The mosquito is a parasite, sucking blood from the monkey in order to provide food for its young. This relationship does not kill the monkey but it gets harmed.
Competitive relationships in the rainforest are:
One tree is taller than the other trees and therefore gets more sunlight while the trees below are in the shadow of the taller tree.
Monkeys fight for the best spot in a tree nearest to the banana trees.
Humans fight for the front of the line to check into The Rainforest Hotel.
Humans interact with the rainforest in a harmful way sometimes. They clear too much of the forest without replanting trees causing a loss of habitat for the animals located there.
This is a food web depiction the ecology in the rain forest that you will see while on vacation here
The rainforest is an ecosystem where animals interact with their environment. Plants produce their own food, animals eat those plants, animals eat those other animals, then when they die, micro-organisms feed on those animals, breaking them down to the soil. That makes what you may call a "circle of life".
Symbiotic relationships in the rainforest are:
Mutualism (good for both)
Commensalism (good for one, doesn't bother other)
Parasitism (good for one, bad for other)
Competitive relationships in the rainforest are:
Humans interact with the rainforest in a harmful way sometimes. They clear too much of the forest without replanting trees causing a loss of habitat for the animals located there.
This is a food web depiction the ecology in the rain forest that you will see while on vacation here